Legislation to provide mandatory expungement eligibility to those convicted of certain marijuana offenses has been passed by Delaware’s full Senate.
Senate Bill 197 was passed yesterday by Delaware’s Senate in a unanimous 20 to 0 vote, with one member abstaining. According to the measure’s synopsis, “This Act provides mandatory expungement eligibility to individuals who were convicted of the possession, use or consumption of marijuana prior to Delaware’s decriminalization of these offenses.” To be eligible for the mandatory expungement, “the marijuana conviction must be the applicant’s only criminal conviction.”
The legislation was introduced by Senate Minority Whip Greg Lavelle (R), and House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst (D). It will now go to the House of Represenatives, where passage would send it to John Carney for consideration.
Read moreDelaware Senate Unanimously Approves Marijuana Expungement Measure
In 2016 California voters approved the ability to wipe criminal marijuana conviction records as a provision in the legalization initiative Proposition 64. However, the existing law requires people with convictions to initiate the process themselves, but many people don’t (often because they don’t know they can, as the option has received little publicity) For some, the process is simply to complicated and costly. Although roughly 5,000 people have applied for an expungement as of 2017, it’s only a small portion of the total number of people eligible.
